1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device, an image forming method, and a program intended to print out image data obtained from multiple documents in one output sheet of paper, and more particularly relates to an image forming device, an image forming method, and a program designed to print out multiple documents of different sizes in one output sheet of paper.
2. Description of Prior Art
A conventional technique relating to an image forming device which forms an image derived from multiple documents in one sheet of paper has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-335388 (Means to Solve the Problems—paragraphs numbered [0036] to [0044], and [0047] to [0050]), for example (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”). Such image forming device includes paper size detecting means to detect paper size, document size detecting means to detect the size of multiple documents, a counter for counting the number of documents, and margin setting means for setting margin intervals between multiple images of the documents when the images are formed on the same sheet of paper without overlapping. The image forming device then determines the reduction magnification of the total size of the documents which is calculated based on the number and size of the documents, the margin intervals between the images, and the sheet sizes, and forms the multiple document images in one sheet by reducing the document images without overlapping. The margin intervals are set in advance. Moreover, to improve the appearance of the composed image, the margin intervals of the various images are automatically set based on the selected paper size.
In this case, a predetermined table has been prepared in advance, and the margin intervals of the images are set in relation to the sizes of paper. Moreover, the appearance of the conveyed documents changes due to their size, and the margin intervals of the images are thus automatically set based on the size of the documents. On the other hand, a composed copy is produced by changing the magnification depending on the contents of a document so as to achieve unified magnification in one document containing characters, and to reduce the graphics contained in two documents loaded upon a document conveying device, for example. In this way, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique of forming images coming from multiple documents of the same size upon the same sheet of paper while margin intervals are provided, and overlapping is prevented by reduction.
Moreover, an image forming device which forms an image while setting margins for a read document has been disclosed Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-86832 (paragraphs numbered [0006], [0008], [0043] to [0052]), for example (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 2”). The technique disclosed in Patent Document2 is such that when the device forms an image while setting margins for a read document, an image processing section forms the image by processing the image including the document and the margins, while changing the magnification thereof to ensure that it would fit into a transfer sheet of paper of a specified size. In this manner, the image forming device according Patent Document 2 eliminates the problem of setting margins to a sheet of paper of standard size, by ensuring that the size of the paper sheet does not deviate from the standard when margins are set.
However, while the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 permits the forming of an image by reducing multiple documents to be uniform in size to fit the documents into one sheet while setting margin intervals, it does not consider allow the forming of an image derived from and by reducing documents of different sizes so as to fit the documents into one and the same sheet. Moreover, the prior art disclosed in Patent Document 1 does not consider the case for setting a margin in advance for staples, memos, or images or the like to be applied or inserted after printing. On the other hand, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 2 forms an image by adding margins to one document thereby altering the magnification of the multiple documents to fit them into one sheet, and does not consider either a case of forming images derived from multiple documents in one and the same sheet. Accordingly, these techniques do not permit the printing of multiple documents of different sizes in one output sheet of paper after allocating a margin.